Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1887-12-18
HOBBIES OF RICH MEN.
Some Costly Pleasures Which Only
the MiIIionaires Can Afford Flag
jer's Million Dollar Hotel.
eh.lds, Thirty Thouaand Dollars In
Checks and Millionaire Vino Has
Fortune In Orchids.
Horses of Rich RIen and the Fortunes
They spend Upon Thtm-What Bonner
Has Paid For Noted steeds.
copyrighted 1887. By the Author !

Door mans mouth waters as he thinks of
themI How his eyes bulge out as he
considers their extravaganza, and his
heart sometimes swells in discomfort
when he rejects that the fortunes squan-
cered to crafty their whims would make
him wealthy many times over! Still the
average millionaire has earned his wealth
and he has right to spend 1t as he
chooses.
/ believe the poor get as much good out
OF their little hobbies IS the rich men do
from their costly ones. The capacity of
joy or sorrow is in the man, and not in
the pocke,book, and the dinner served to
the poor collector On the odd bits of
china which he hiss picked up at second
hand stores, tickles his stomach
lust as much as does the feast
of George W. Chil6s when he
sits down before q table service worth
$50, The poor mans old-fashioned
clock, which he bought for SIC atauction,
ticks TO him as melodiously IS does the
one to Childs which cost him $4,000, and
he gets as much pleasure out of mis- one
rare flower as Jay Gould does out Of his
$500 orchids.
George W. Childs' hobbies are many,
and he is so charitable that no one be-
grudges him the money he spends upon
them. He has, it is said, $4,000 worth
of clocks, sud one of his clocks cost him
5000 at auction. This clock belonged
to Prince Napoleon. It weighs two tons,
and is nine feet high. Another of his
clocks belonged to Dsvid Rittenhouse,
and it cost 500 in 1867, when it wse
made. He has French clock which cost
over $500, and ii is made of marble and
bronze.
Autographs form another OF Ctilds'
hobbies. and he has, perhaps, the finest
autograph collection in the United States.
He has original manuscripts and letters
froE nearly every noted statesman in the
world, end bis autograph collection en-
braces about 10000 names. Like most Of
the rich autograph collectors of to-day,
he does not care for mere signatures, and
letter. TO be of value, must contain some
sentiment characteristic of the writer
Among his letters are some from Charles
Dickens, Thomas Hood, Nathaniel Haw-
thorne and others. Many of them are di-
rected to Fir. Childs himself, and every
one Of them is worth many times its
weight in gold. He has the autographs of
all the Presidents, beginning with the last
letter which General Washington ever
wrote, end these autographs are bound
into book with Presidents portrait on
each page and IN autographic letter OF his
on the page opposite.
BE has msny fine pictures, and ell rich
men &re noted as being lobbyists in pic
fure collection. Gould, the Vanderbllts,
George I. Seney, and W. T. Walters OF
Baltimore, own many rare paintings, and
Walters bought the other day little pic
ture, not more than eight by ten inches
In size, which cost him $1,000. Corco-
rams best pictures are In the Corcoran
gallery, and the galleries of the country
will in the future get the best of the pri-
vate collections now in existence. Great
fortunes do not last long in America, and
the auctioneer's hammer Or the pawn
broker finally gets the costilest and the
best.
Oae Of the curious hobbies Of rich men
is that Of the Standard OH millionaire
Flagler. l WAS tod at Cleveland, from
whence Mr.. Flagler comes, thst from his
earliest days he has had an ambition to
keep hotel, snd the offspring Of this de-
sire now crops out in the $1,000, 600 hotel
which he is now building In orids.
This hotel IS located ct ST. Augustine
Ii will cover four acres OF ground, and it
makes me think Of the ,alaces Of the
Doges at Venice. Il is the finest hotel
in the United Safes, but Flaglsr is said
to be worth at least s25, 600, goo, and he
can afford it.
Ersstus Cornipe's hobbies are butter
flies and orchids He has one of the
largest collections of butter flies In the
United States. There are 80. 900 If them,
and ne has been fifteen years gathering
them together.
Deacon White, the millionaire Of Wall
street, who is now in Congress, in eddi-
ton to being an art collector, is a star
gazer. he has an observa sory on the top
Of his house in Brooklyn, ana his hobby
is astronomy and amate ur telegraphy. j.
H,-Wade of Cleveland is another rich
man who likes to tslk by telegraph, ano
who In addition to his other accomplish
ments boasts of taking the first dsguer-
reotype taken west of the Allegheny
mountains. Senator John Kenpa of West
Virginia, though not worth quite mill
ion, is rich, and he dotes on emsteur
Photography; while Pierre Lorrillard, the
rich tobaccopist, spencs fortunes on
horses and dogs, and makes hobby of
pheaeants and chickens.
Senator Tom Palmer OF Michigan has
hobby in his Jersey COWS and PercheroD
horses. His butter COSTS him about 81 q
pound, but he has the proud satisfaction
OF knowing that be raises it himself. HIS
Jersey cows are imported from Europe
going there to pick out the animals, and
he is president of the Percheron Horse
Society OF the United States, and has
horses in his stable which it would take
several times Congressmen's salary to
buy. His wife has some OF the finest
dogs In the country, and her Blenhelm
spaniels are SO delicate that they have to
be fed with spoon, and they have NOT
their superIors in the world. Another OF
P&lmer's hobbies is his log house ssd
farm near Detroit. He has spent 800 600
In improving the farm, and the log house
cost &l2 coo to suild. There is lake in
front of it which was dug with pick and
shovel, and steam engine is constantly |
employed in pumping the stream which |
makes the waterfall which fills it.
Roscoe Conkling's hobby has been |
athletics, and he has gymnasium in his |
house. When he was Senator in Wash |!
ington he got Matt Carpenter to try O
round of boxing with him, end punished |
him terribly. Matt said nothing. but 8
few days later called With friend of |
herculean proportions. He proposed TO |
ConkliDg that his friend take q lock ct the
gymnssiums. and Conkling gladly con-
scented to take box with the stranger |
The StraurQr I'm fYefad hmm Uorca than ho /